HM Treasury

UK 2016 National Reform Programme

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My honourable friend the Financial Secreatary to the Treasury (David Gauke) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.On 24 March, the government published the UK 2016 National Reform Programme. The document was sent to the European Commission, as part of the European Semester.National Reform ProgrammeUnder Council Recommendation 2010/410 of 13 July 2010, Member States send National Reform Programmes each year, which report to the Commission on their structural reforms and plans.The UK 2016 National Reform Programme reports on actions taken by the UK as a whole, including by the government and by the devolved administrations where policy responses are of a devolved competence.The 2016 National Reform Programme:puts the UK’s structural reforms in the context of deficit reduction, the 2015 Autumn Statement and Budget 2014reports on the broad macroeconomic contextreports on policies to tackle the three Country-Specific Recommendations addressed to the UK by the June 2015 European Council: correcting the deficit, boosting housing supply, and addressing skills mismatches and improving the availability of childcaresets out the UK’s approach to national monitoring, in line with the five headline Europe 2020 targets agreed by the European Council in June 2010.The National Reform Programme is based heavily on the announcements and forecasts of Budget 2016 and the Autumn Statement and Spending Review 2015. It is, furthermore, drawn entirely from information already in the public domain.A copy of the document has been deposited in the House of Commons library and is available on the Treasury website.


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Contingencies Fund Advance: UK Government Investments Ltd

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My honourable friend the Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Harriett Baldwin) has today made the following Written Ministerial Statement.In May 2015 the Chancellor announced that the Shareholder Executive (ShEx) and UK Financial Investments (UKFI) were to be brought together under a single holding company, UK Government Investments (UKGI). UKGI was incorporated on 11th September 2015 and will commence operations from 1 April 2016. The resources and cash to finance UKGI’s spending will form part of HM Treasury’s Main Estimate for 2016-17. Parliamentary authority enabling UKGI to be funded is included in the Enterprise Bill which is currently before Parliament but is yet to receive Royal Assent. Parliamentary approval for resources of £12,100,000 for this new service will be sought in the Main Estimate for HM Treasury. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £ 2,400,000 will be met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund.


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ECOFIN: 8 March 2016

Lord O'Neill of Gatley: My honourable friend the Financial Secretary to the TreasuryA meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council was held in Brussels on 8 March 2016. EU Finance Ministers discussed the following items:Mandatory automatic exchange of information in the field of taxationThe Council held a discussion on a Presidency compromise text on the Commission’s proposal to amend the Directive with regards to the mandatory exchange of information in the field of taxation as part of the EU taking forward the recommendations from the OECD.Current Legislative ProposalsThe Presidency gave an update to the Council on the state of play of financial services dossiers.State of play of the Banking UnionThe Commission provided an update on several dossiers linked to the Banking Union: the Single Resolution Fund, the Bank Recovery and Resolution Directive and the Deposit Guarantee Scheme Directive. The Presidency also provided a short update on progress to establish a European Deposit Insurance Scheme, which the UK is not participating in.Fiscal Sustainability Report 2015Ministers adopted conclusions outlining the Council’s position on the Commission’s Fiscal Sustainability Report.Follow-up to the G20 Meeting of Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors on 26-27 February 2016 Following the first G20 of the Chinese Presidency in Shanghai on 26-27 February, the Commission and the ECOFIN chair debriefed Ministers on discussions.European Semester 2016: Implementation of Country-Specific Recommendations drawing on the country reports and in-depth reviews.The Commission reported to ECOFIN on the implementation of 2015 Country-Specific Recommendations with a particular focus on removing the barriers to investment, following the publication of the country reports, published 26 February.


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Leader of the House of Lords

Machinery of Government change: Environmental regulatory functions

Baroness Stowell of Beeston: My Rt Hon. Friend the Prime Minister has made the following statement to the House of Commons: This written ministerial statement confirms that responsibility for environmental regulatory functions will transfer from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This change will be effective from 1 April 2016.

Ministerial Correction

Baroness Stowell of Beeston: During the European Council Statement on 21 March I should have said that we have renewed our presence off the coast of Libya as part of an EU operation to tackle people smuggling (Operation Sophia), not a NATO one (HL Deb 21 March 2016, col 2125).

Department for Education

Government Response to the Consultation on Ofqual’s National Reference Test

Lord Nash: My honourable friend the Minister of State for Schools (Nick Gibb) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.Today, 24 March 2016, the Government is publishing its response to its public consultation[1] on the introduction of new secondary legislation to require selected schools to take part in the National Reference Test (NRT).The NRT is a further step in the Government’s reform agenda, which will deliver robust and rigorous qualifications for England’s students. Before 2010, pupils received successively higher grades at GCSE each year, but in international league tables England’s performance stagnated. Ofqual has halted this grade inflation through the use of comparable outcomes.[2]Ofqual is introducing the NRT which will indicate if GCSE results should change from year to year. Over time, this will provide an additional method of measuring real changes in national performance at GCSE which is distinct from the use of international comparisons such as the PISA study.The National Reference TestEach year, a different sample of 300 secondary schools, both in the state and independent sectors, will be selected to take part. Random samples of pupils from each selected school will take a test lasting about an hour. About 30 pupils from each school will take the English language test and another 30 will take the mathematics test. Ofqual will publish information about overall test performance each summer when GCSE results are announced. The results will not be used for school accountability purposes and results will not be given to individual pupils. Instead, the NRT will provide Ofqual with additional evidence on year-on-year changes in performance.Participation in the test will benefit both schools and pupils, as it will help to provide more direct evidence of improving school performance at the national level which can be reflected in the grades that are awarded at GCSE, ensuring higher attaining cohorts are rewarded.The legislation will apply to maintained schools. It will also apply to most academies and free schools through an existing provision in their funding agreements requiring them to comply with guidance issued by the Secretary of State in relation to assessments. It will not apply to independent schools although pupils at independent schools will also be asked to take the test to ensure that the sample of pupils that take the test is nationally representative.The consultationThe public consultation, which ran from 30 November 2015 until 22 January 2016 allowed teachers, parents, pupils, and all those with an interest to provide their views, which have been taken into account in preparing the final legislation. Having carefully considered the small number of responses received, the Government has decided to proceed with enacting the proposed secondary legislation. It is important that the sample of pupils taking the test each year is fully representative and therefore it is appropriate that it should be mandatory for selected schools to take part. The legislation will come into force on 1 September 2016 and the first full NRT will take place in March 2017. [1] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/national-reference-test-implementation-arrangements.[2] For further information, see https://ofqual.blog.gov.uk/2015/08/05/gcse-marking-and-grading/


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Condition Improvement Fund

Lord Nash: Today I am announcing the outcome of the Condition Improvement Fund 2016-17, which provides funding for the improvement and expansion of existing academy and sixth-form college buildings.I am announcing funding of £435 million for 1,276 projects across 1,030 academies and sixth-form colleges, which will help to ensure that children across the country have access to world class schools. Ensuring that there is a good local school place for every child, and that all children are being taught in safe and fit for purpose school buildings which help unlock their full potential, is of highest importance to this Government.The Government announced at the Spending Review in November it is investing £23 billion in schools infrastructure between 2016 and 2021. This money will support the opening of 500 free schools, the provision of over 600,000 additional school places, the rebuild and refurbishment of schools and will address essential school maintenance needs. In addition to the funding for expansion of good and outstanding academies and colleges we are announcing today, we are also making over £200 million capital funding available to support the expansion of special education needs provision and the creation of new special schools. We will say more about how this will be distributed later this year.We know that being taught in school buildings in poor condition can have an adverse effect on pupils and staff and that is why we are continuing to invest in improving our estate. Today’s announcement follows on from the announcement in February of the allocation of £200 million of Devolved Formula Capital to schools and the School Condition Allocations to local authorities, voluntary aided schools and larger multi-academy trusts.Details of today’s announcement are being sent to all applicants and a list of successful projects will be published on Gov.uk. Copies will be placed in the House Library. We will look for opportunities to fund further high scoring applications from this year’s bidding round should additional funding become available.


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Cabinet Office

CONDUCT GUIDANCE FOR ELECTIONS ON 5 MAY

Lord Bridges of Headley: My Right Honourable friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Matthew Hancock) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement: As is normal ahead of the forthcoming elections, guidance has today been issued for civil servants in UK Government departments and those working in arm’s length bodies on the principles that they should observe in relation to the conduct of Government business in the run up to the forthcoming elections on 5 May 2016 to the Scottish Parliament; the National Assembly for Wales; the Northern Ireland Assembly; to some local authorities in England, including for the directly elected Mayors of London, Bristol, Liverpool and Salford; and for Police and Crime Commissioners in England and Wales.The guidance sets out the need to maintain the political impartiality of the Civil Service, and the need to ensure that public resources are not used for party political purposes during this period. The period of sensitivity preceding the local, mayoral and Police and Crime Commissioner elections starts on 14 April, and in relation to the devolved administrations from 24 March for the elections to the Scottish Parliament; 30 March for the Northern Ireland Assembly; and 6 April for the National Assembly for Wales.Copies of the guidance have been placed in the Libraries of the House and on the Cabinet Office website at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/election-guidance-for-civil-servants



CONDUCT GUIDANCE
(Word Document, 94.5 KB)





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Intention to transfer CERT-UK to the new National Cyber Security Centre

Lord Bridges of Headley: My Right Honourable friend the Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General (Matthew Hancock) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement: In the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review the Government confirmed that we would invest £1.9 billion over the next five years in protecting the UK from cyber attack and developing our sovereign capabilities in cyber space, including by creating a national cyber centre. The new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) will open in October 2016. As part of GCHQ, the NCSC will bring together a number of cyber security functions from across government. It is intended that the current functions of CERT-UK, currently part of the Cabinet Office, will move into the NCSC. Detailed design work is underway on implementing the NCSC, and I will update the House further in due course.


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Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Help to Grow – Launch

Baroness Neville-Rolfe: My Rt hon Friend the Minister of State for Small Business, Industry and Enterprise (Anna Soubry) has today made the following statement: The Help to Grow (‘H2G’) pilot programme was announced by the Prime Minister (‘PM’) in February 2015. Drawing on research undertaken by the British Business Bank (‘BBB’), Government committed to address an identified finance gap for fast growing, innovative SMEs by using the Government's balance sheet to guarantee loans by private lenders and by co-investing public money alongside private money to bring new lenders to the market. These SMEs are vital to the UK economy and are major drivers of employment and wealth for the country. Ensuring they have access to the right type of finance at the right time is essential to ensure they maximise their growth potential. Following the pilot announcement and extensive market engagement, BBB has developed three products to test in tackling the identified gap. These are two guarantee products and an option for co-investment in funds. The first contract with a delivery partner will be exchanged shortly. The pilot is expected to last 2 years and anticipates supporting in the region of £200m total new lending under H2G. The pilot will be evaluating the appropriateness of the design of the three lending products within H2G alongside lenders' ability to successfully originate eligible H2G loans. H2G will support SMEs seeking growth investment between £0.5m - £2m for developing new products, processes or services, research and innovation, and expansion into new markets. The two guarantee products being piloted will give rise to a contingent liability which under Managing Public Money principles require notifying to both Houses. These liabilities will arise when beneficiary SME’s default on their loan repayments and the delivery partner is unable to recover the capital despite reasonable commercial steps being taken to pursue the debt. A Departmental Minute has been laid concurrently in both Houses which provides further detail on these liabilities. Subject to the findings of the pilot programme, the intention will be to roll H2G out further in order to ensure innovative, ambitious and growing UK SME’s can continue to be able to access this vital funding. 


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